Potentially switching from Ubuntu to Mac

Garth

Ugh.

I can barely believe I'm considering this. I do love the simplicity of Ubuntu.

But I've started a job where I work entirely on Macs and it seems like it might just make sense to have a look at my own personal laptop being Mac too because switching between the two is wrecking my head in a job that is hard enough already

My current laptop is just barely working -- hard drive is throwing errors all the time, the casing is held together with tape and the battery is a bit crap, but it is 4 years old and constantly in use.

I primarily use my laptop for social media and writing. Scrivener would be a real bonus for Mac.

But, there are times I need power for video and photo editing.

I also commute 4 hours a day, so my laptop has to be light. I currently have a Toshiba R700 which is fine.

I would love some advice on Macbook Air vs Macbook Pro including the best time of year to buy them and how long they last.

Or any other recommendations, really! I'm open to ideas!

Kavrocks

Garth wrote: »

I would love some advice on Macbook Air vs Macbook Pro including the best time of year to buy them and how long they last.

I'm not a big fan of recommending laptops to people as I think it's really a personal choice based on your needs and what you like but I've a 2011 Macbook Air. The portability is exceptional and the reason I bought it. It runs nearly as well as it did when I first got it and miles better than anybody else's laptop I know. It's not the best for a lot of video encoding (I do very little anyway) but handles everything else perfectly for me.

The Buyer's Guide by Macrumours is very good for knowing the best time to buy. Most of the information about rumours and teardowns can be found from links within it.

5uspect

The Airs got a minor spec bump and a €100 price drop recently. We're not likely to see any new Macs until the Xmas season or potentially an August paper launch.

So if you want all day battery life and don't care too much about raw power get the Air, if you want the epic screen and a bit more grunt get the rMBP. The 'classic' 13" MBP is a bit long in the tooth TBH.

I've a 2010 13" MBP with a core2duo since, well 2010. I've put an SSD and some RAM into it and it's flying along for most things, tho the C2D is pretty show at tasks like rendering video or processing RAW files. I imagine it would easily last a couple more years without a hitch.
My preference is currently a 13" rMBP, it probably really needs a performance upgrade to help run that screen so I'll likely wait for the new model.

Garth

Thanks. Apologies for not replying sooner, but I'm not getting my notifications for some reason! The prospect of a retina Air sounds amazing and I'm seeing it predicted for 4th quarter.

I may have to re-tape up my old Toshiba and see will it last.